Ken's Foods, maker of salad dressings and sauces, plans a major expansion in Marlborough, MA.

The week before the holidays sees major job creation and investment announcements in Texas, Illinois and Massachusetts:

In Texas, TEKsystems Global Services is creating a new IT center in Irving, along with 500 jobs and $4.8 million in capital investment. The state is providing $1.1 million through the Texas Enterprise Fund (TEF) to close the deal on the new facility. TEKsystems Global Services provides services in software development and maintenance, quality assurance and testing.

In Illinois, Motorola Solutions Inc. will move its North American sales headquarters to downtown Chicago as part of its promise to add 400 jobs in the city. The senior leadership team of the North American sales group will move to Michigan Avenue from the company’s Schaumburg headquarters next year.

In Tennessee, Bell Helicopter Inc. will expand its Piney Flats facility. This project represents an investment of $10.1 million and is anticipated to create up to 125 new jobs at the company’s completion and customer delivery facility.

In Massachusetts, Ken’s Foods has received $600,000 in investment tax credits from the state for a $23 million expansion to its Marlborough facility. Ken’s Foods is the largest privately owned salad dressing and sauce manufacturer in the United States. It products include the Ken’s Steak House Salad Dressing, Ken’s Labels, Sweet Baby Ray’s and Sticky Fingers lines and private labels for Paul Newman and others. The company employs 438 workers in Marlborough and plans to add 30 more with the expansion.

In Kentucky, Indatus and Mocura, two companies under the ownership of ICIM Corp., plan to establish headquarters in Louisville. Indatus and Mocura will create 100 new jobs and establish a tier-2 datacenter with full network operations center and staff in a renovated historic building. Indatus is a 22-year-old company, with products that have been in the “cloud” (running at least partially over the internet on a remote server accessed by web browser) for more than 10 years. Mocura is an 18-month-old sister company to Indatus, which covers three areas of products and services that are solely focused on enterprise-level apps and data gathering.

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